The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Sunday hinted that it would hold a stakeholders’ forum on the nation’s Commodities Trading Eco-system in furtherance its efforts to deepen the nation’s capital market through a vibrant commodities exchange.
The Acting Director General of the commission, Ms. Mary Uduk, stated that the forum, which is scheduled to hold on October 3, 2019 in Lagos with the theme: ‘Building a strong Commodities Trading Ecosystem for Inclusive Economic Development’, would create a platform for industry experts, policy makers and thought leaders to have discussions to further develop the nation’s commodities market.
She explained further that the objective of the forum was to obtain the buy-in of policy makers and agencies of government and to get perspectives of stakeholders towards encouraging investments and get more participation in the commodities market.
The SEC boss said: “The Capital Market Master Plan did an analysis of where we are and where we want to be as the leading capital market in Africa and one of the areas is the Commodities market which is very important, but one of the least developed. The Nigerian economy is mainly agrarian driven, all states of the federation have exportable quantities of commodities and we have some of the highest grades in the world.
“Government wants to diversify to agriculture and so we need to be able to export some of these commodities. If the farmers do very well, the earnings of the country will be boosted.
“If we can develop this very well, our country will be better for it. What we need now are better pricing, transparency and better quality and these are what we set to achieve with the farmers and that is why the Commodities Exchange is important.
“The crude form they are trading now does not provide the farmers the benefit of price discovery, transparency among others. The only way to achieve these is to have an exchange hence the need arose to set up the Technical Committee to look holistically at all the issues, the nation needs to harness the full potentials in the Commodities market”, Uduk added.
According to her, the aim of SEC is to have an efficient commodities exchange because right now that sector of the capital market is dormant and that is why the Commission is leading other capital market stakeholders on capacity building and public enlightenment campaigns.
Uduk hinted further that the commission had commenced capacity building for stakeholders and the public on commodities exchange to bridge the current knowledge gap and ensure that the country reaps the benefits of trading in commodities in line with the recommendations of the Technical Committee on Commodities Trading Ecosystem.
It would be recalled that the committee’s report, which is published on SEC’s website, contains no fewer than 40 recommendations on how to create an efficient commodities exchange for the country..
